Australia Retracts Recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's Capital: It's all About Domestic Politics
Note From the Editor, Vivian Bercovici:
Friday night. January 27, 2023. Seven Jews in a Jerusalem suburb were murdered outside a synagogue by 21-year-old Alqam Khayr, a resident of a nearby neighborhood. Mr. Khayri was pursued and began shooting at Israeli law enforcement officers who returned fire, killing him on the scene. He had no known political or terror affiliations but one can safely surmise that he believed he was exacting a measure of revenge for IDF military action in Jenin the day before, in which nine Palestinian fighters died and, tragically, an elderly woman in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Khayri’s murderous rampage was celebrated throughout the West Bank, in Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip with fireworks, large public gatherings and the eating of sweets and local desserts. His mother boasted of her pride in her son, who will now be treated as a martyr by the governing Palestinian Authority. She will also receive rich monthly payments from the PA, for life, recognizing the appreciation and value of her son’s acts. Much of the PA budget comes from donations provided by western countries, ostensibly to support the development of nation building institutions, not freelance murder operations.
Let’s assume that Khayri’s action was some sort of retaliatory action, a “tit for tat.” There is no symmetry – moral or military – between what went down in Jenin, targeting committed terrorists/combatants – call them what you will – and innocent civilians on their way to or from worship. Yet, this “perspective” resonates among so-called “progressives”, among them the current federal leadership of my home and native land, Canada.
Various tweets - and notable silences and omissions – issued by leading Government of Canada officials, including the Ambassador to Israel, were particularly offensive.
This sort of disingenuous formula of “equivalency” is nothing more than thinly veiled anti-semitism. It is also a preferred interpretation by the senior brass at the Department of Global Affairs in Ottawa as well as the elected officials serving Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, a man incongruously revered by many as some sort of “progressive,” a term which has clearly lost its meaning.
The redoubtable Canadian journalist, Terry Glavin, exposed the ugliness of this position brilliantly:
The morning after, a Jewish father and son were shot and wounded by a 13-year old gun-toting Palestinian boy in the City of David area of Jerusalem. A soldier was also wounded.
All that mattered then, and does now, was the horror and hatred. Every terrorist attack is its own fresh Hell, especially for the bereaved loved ones. Some, like the killing rampage last Friday, are particularly chilling. Families targeted on their way to or from the weekly synagogue service welcoming in the Sabbath; it takes a special kind of evil to cause such carnage.
If there is any hope it is reflected in the heroism of the first emergency responder on the scene on Friday night. An Arab medic who has worked with Magen David Adom (the Israeli equivalent of Red Cross) for decades, he has attended so many gruesome scenes. But he said that none was as heart rending as what he saw on Friday night. There is something, I think, that is just so beyond savage; attacking innocents outside a house of worship.
We had prepared to publish the piece, below, on Friday, but everything seemed inappropriate once the attack happened. So, we waited. We at State of Tel Aviv extend condolences to the families and mourn for the victims. BDE.
And now, as we would say in Hebrew – “להבדיל” – meaning - to separate - the foregoing from what comes below.
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Several months ago, I asked Dave Sharma, former Australian Ambassador to Israel, to write a piece explaining the dramatic shift in government policy there towards Israel.
Dave had been on the job in Israel for a year or two when I arrived in January, 2014, to serve as Canada’s Ambassador there. His relaxed Aussie charm did not hide his sharp intellect and interest in always probing and questioning. I recall participating in more than a few gatherings at his official residence and Embassy, when he would do what diplomats do: convene small groups to engage with local government officials as well as influential NGO leaders. Dave never shied away from controversy then and has not since.
And he doesn’t sugar-coat the dramatic shift in Australian policy towards Israel that has set in with the Labor government. There are, of course, ideological underpinnings to this development but Sharma argues that it is the growing Muslim immigrant community which has also brought with it an entrenched hostility towards Israel and, often, Jewish people, that is the primary factor influencing domestic foreign policy.
For decades now, Australia has stood out as one of the most consistent supporters of Israel globally. This recent change may be a harbinger of a broader trend, which merits very careful attention.
I.
The Australian Labor Party - Australia's main center-left political party - has traditionally been a strong supporter of the state of Israel.
It was a Labor government, under Prime Minister Ben Chifley, that first recognized Israel as a state in January 1949.
It was a Labor foreign minister, Doc Evatt, who presided over the UN General Assembly vote in May 1949 which admitted Israel as a member state of the United Nations.
And Australia's trade union movement has long had strong ties with the Histadrut, Israel's largest trade union body.
So it came as a shock to many when Australia's Labor government, elected in May 2022 - and in one of its most consequential foreign policy decisions since coming to office – declared in October, 2022, that it would cease recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
The decision itself was handled and communicated poorly. Neither the foreign minister, Penny Wong, nor the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, spoke to anyone in Israel in advance of such a far-reaching decision.
No diplomatic “head’s-up” was given. The Jewish community in Australia was not alerted. And to add insult to injury, the decision was announced on Simchat Torah, a significant Jewish holiday.
Yair Lapid, then Israel's prime minister, was singularly unimpressed. "We can only hope that the Australian government manages other matters more seriously and professionally," he reacted.
Beyond this, though, the decision has perplexing consequences.
II.
Prior to this announcement, Australia recognized West Jerusalem as Israel's capital (a distinction that Israel's government, which claims sovereignty over all of Jerusalem, rejects).
This reflected the fact that West Jerusalem is where all Israel's major national institutions are situated, including the Knesset, Prime Minister's Office and the Supreme Court. Furthermore, under every conceivable two-state solution discussed and negotiated over many decades, Jerusalem has always been treated as the capital of Israel.
Australia took the view that whilst the status of East Jerusalem was disputed and still subject to negotiation, the status of West Jerusalem was not in any doubt.
By withdrawing this (partial) recognition, the Labor government seems to be suggesting otherwise, and that Israeli sovereignty over West Jerusalem - that part of Jerusalem which Israel has controlled since 1948 - is anything but settled.
By denying Israel's claim to Jerusalem in its entirety, the Australian Labor government has ended up with some unsavory bedfellows. Hamas and Islamic Jihad, both committed to Israel's destruction, welcomed the shift in Australian policy.
Indeed, rather than furthering the cause of peace, as the government claimed, all the decision has done is to provide a tailwind to extremists and those who deny that Israel has a rightful place in the region.
And this Jerusalem decision is likely only the start of a much bigger foreign policy shift still underway.
III.
Under its previous center-right government, Australia provided strong support to Israel at the United Nations. It nearly always voted alongside the United States to oppose the annual resolutions targeting Israel that are one-sided, unbalanced, and have sought historically to apportion all blame for regional conflict to one party. Israel.
Under a Labor government, this voting pattern will certainly change. It may not transition to outright and consistent hostility to Israel, but Australia will likely adopt a voting pattern more aligned with many European countries on these issues.
But there is a much bigger prize that Labor activists are seeking: the unilateral recognition by Australia of a 'state of Palestine'.
For some years now, pressure has been building within the rank-and-file membership of the Labor Party to do just that.
At the Labour party national conference held 2021, it was Penny Wong who introduced the motion adopted as official policy in their national platform: to recognize unilaterally the State of Palestine.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the only foreign policy issue to warrant a separate 'statement in detail' in Labor's national platform, showing just how disproportionate the focus is on this issue within party ranks.
Should the Labor government follow through on its platform and unilaterally recognise a 'state of Palestine' (without the negotiation of a final status agreement), it will decisively end decades of bipartisan support for Israel within Australia.
And it would separate us from some of our closest partners – “like-mindeds” in diplomatic-speak - including the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, New Zealand, France, Germany and Canada.
A shift of this magnitude would not hasten the emergence of a future Palestinian state. But it would break a strong Labor tradition of support for the state of Israel, and harm one of our closest and most valuable relationships in the Middle East.
In straight national interest terms, such an approach makes little sense for Australia. But it is domestic politics, rather than national interests, driving Labor's approach.
IV.
The broad trend seen elsewhere in the western world, of growing hostility to Israel from the progressive left, is also at work in Australia.
Social progressives and climate activists increasingly adopt the Palestinian national cause and narrative, however disconnected to their own agenda.
Australian Jewish students find themselves increasingly uncomfortable and unwelcome on university campuses and in student unions, where anti-Israel motions are passed regularly.
There have been attempts by pro-Palestinian groups to appropriate the language and status of 'first nations' Australians, claiming that they share a history as victims of colonialism and dispossession.
Antisemitism, traditionally the preserve of the nationalist right, is now seen as often on the political left.
As the home of progressive voters, the Australian Labor Party seeks to align its views with that of its base.
But an ideological shift has also taken place. Previously, Labor identified with Israel as the regional “underdog”, a vulnerable state within a hostile region. As Israel has grown more powerful and more secure, today Labor identifies with the Palestinians as the regional ‘victims’, and affords them sympathy and support accordingly.
The transition is well illustrated by a former Premier of New South Wales, Bob Carr, who founded ‘Labor Friends of Israel’ in 1977. His co-founder, Bob Hawke, went on to become Labor’s most successful Australian Prime Minister, serving from 1983 to 1991. But these days Carr is one of the loudest proponents within the Labor Party advocating unilateral recognition of a state of Palestine. His transition reflects a broader shift in view within the Australian Labor Party.
V.
But there is also something more profound going on in Australia, and that is an inexorable demographic shift.
Australia's Jewish population almost doubled after the second world war resulting from an influx of Holocaust survivors from Europe.
Many of these new arrivals made a strong imprint on Australia, often building hugely successful businesses and rising to senior positions within the law, politics and the arts.
Their size, success and status made them a prized political constituency, and mainstream politicians were almost uniformly supportive of Israel and the Jewish community.
But the Jewish community in Australia is no longer growing. Whilst it remains vibrant, it faces the same challenges with which other diaspora communities contend.
The Australian Jewish population, as measured in the 2021 census, is only 100,000, or roughly 0.4% of the Australian population. Jewish migration to Australia is only about 1,000 people per year, and the birth rate is close to the national average (1.7 births per woman).
At the same time, Australia has become a different nation as a result of migration in recent decades.
Newer migrants have brought with them their own values and perspectives, and frequently these perspectives are hostile to Israel.
As one example, there are around 100,000 people born in Pakistan living in Australia. The figures are similar for the communities which have arrived from Iraq, Lebanon, Malaysia, Indonesia and Afghanistan. In total, immigrants from these countries constitute approximately 500,000 Australians.
None of these countries recognise the existence or legitimacy of the state of Israel. None of them have diplomatic relations with Israel. Not one of them has a Jewish community. But in the past, they did, particularly in Iraq and Lebanon.
According to Australia's 2021 census, there are now more than 800,000 Australian Muslims. Again, these would predominantly be migrants from countries which are officially and traditionally hostile to Israel. Too often, the anti-Israel hatred extends automatically to all Jews, who are seen to be an extension of the Jewish state.
More often than not, these people would never have met a Jewish person, and their knowledge of Israel would be informed by the hostile and extreme stereotypes and narratives promoted in their country of origin.
The places they tend to settle in Australia mean they are also unlikely to encounter Jewish Australians in their new life. So the stereotypes persist.
Many of these newer arrivals are concentrated in the outer suburbs of Sydney and Melbourne, and in electorates which are traditional Labor strongholds.
They often join the Labor Party and participate in the selection of candidates.
And it is Labor representatives from these areas that tend to be the most critical of Israel and its policies; who are pushing hardest for unilateral recognition of a state of Palestine by a Labor government.
“All politics is local” is a cliché for good reason. The growing hostility to Israel from some Labor politicians is partly ideological, but also reflective of the changing views of their community.
VI.
This presents a huge challenge to the Australian Jewish community, which quite understandably prefers bipartisan support for Israel to continue.
Not only must it address the growing hostility to Israel from amongst the progressive left, but it must also persuade a new generation of Australians to discard the anti-Israel propaganda they were raised with. Education, dialogue and outreach are key.
This is easier said than done, but the alternative is growing hostility to Israel from Australia's major centre-left political party.
In such circumstances, the decision to cease recognition of Jerusalem will only be a small harbinger of much bigger things to come.